Counterfeit

ABOUT 4,000 counterfeit Cuban cigars worth $1 million were seized in Hunghom yesterday by Customs and Excise officers. A 27-year-old man was arrested after Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau staff found the cigars, cheap Mexican copies, in a storage centre.

It has taken some years for the Government to recognise that the greatest menace of copyright piracy is not its deleterious impact on relations with the USA, but the crippling effect it has on local industry.

Facing the threat of United States trade sanctions, Taiwan is to strengthen export controls against pirated goods and seek to prevent Taiwanese money from financing counterfeiting overseas. Customs inspections will be revised to make it easier to locate fakes, said a customs spokesman. Also, patent and copyright law violators will be banned from investing abroad.

A 57-year-old man and his 44-year-old wife were arrested by Commercial Crime Bureau officers, who seized several forged deposit certificates, counterfeit US Treasury Bonds, purportedly issued in the 1940s, and a fake US$500 banknote at a raid on their North Point home.

The European Commission is expected to insist that Beijing takes action to halt exports of allegedly hazardous kettles.

Strix, a British company that commands about 65 per cent of the world's GBP90 million (about HK$1.13 billion) a year market in kettle controls, says several brands of mainland-made kettles have been sold with counterfeit Strix controls.

NEWSPAPERS have reported a crackdown against people posing as state security agents. But those impersonating secret policemen are merely the most daring among many criminals who try to fake, rather than make, a living.

The US government is conducting a worldwide public education campaign to familiarise people with its newly designed $100 bill, which includes advanced protective features to stay ahead of evolving counterfeiting technology. The new bills are set for global release soon.